On November 30, 2016, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan – Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs – challenged claims made by former U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, and Washington Post columnist, Mr. Josh Rogin, against senior officials under consideration for posts in the Trump White House:

I am the author of three empirical, peer-reviewed journal articles that examine matters involving the exiled Iranian resistance group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). I also penned the foreword to an independent 2013 study undertaken by Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. that addressed the misinformation campaign directed at Western government policies toward the Iranian opposition group. Bloomfield, a former defense and foreign policy official who served three presidents over five administrations in the Pentagon, White House, and State Department, produced the scholarly history of the MEK to challenge conventional wisdom within the Department of State and to prompt fresh policy thinking…

After appearing at Townhall, the commentary was republished as the featured post at the Foreign Policy Association and has been shared thousands of times in less than a week.

Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan is the Director of the graduate programs in Negotiations & Conflict Management and Global Affairs & Human Securityin the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore.